Anyone recognise this as a scam? It sure looks weird. Here is what happened:-
(1) I sold a watch on eBay on Thursday 24th. It was paid for immediately by PayPal. I have received the money and successfully transferred it to my current account.
(2) I despatched the watch on Friday 25th by 1st Class RMSF, as requested. I sent it to the eBay delivery address (which matches the PayPal address). The delivery address appeared to be the buyer's work address but that's merely an observation.
(3) At 09:16 today (Monday 28th) I received an eBay message from the buyer stating:
(4) Royal Mail confirms delivery at 09:35 this morning (Monday 28th). The item was signed for with an unreadable signature by someone named "ST G" (which could well be a contraction of the destination postcode).I think there has been some kind of glitch or error, as I did not order this item or have any use for it. Are you sure this has been sent to me. I also can't see how I have paid for it. There is no trace of it on my Pay pal account.
I have not yet replied to the buyer. And I have not heard back from him since the delivery of the item.
This is not one of the email scams where people pretend via email that an item has sold (or similar): I have confirmed all details via eBay and PayPal websites.
As mentioned above, all the eBay and PayPal details match except one thing. The one mismatch is that the sale summary page on eBay shows that the buyer is a "Tony Pxxxxxx" (actual name replaced by x's). However, this links to the seemingly correct eBay user account to which all other references on both eBay and PayPal link to, but the user's name in all these locations is completely different. Don't know what to make of that.
Any thoughts? I am stumped as to what to say to the guy.
That's a weird one - but given how creative the scams have gotten, my suggestion would be to get him to send it back to you. That way if there are further developments, as there could well be, you have your watch and thus hold all the cards.
Once you have it back, I'd contact Paypal, and let them know you have the money and are willing to return it to them.
So clever my foot fell off.
don't know of a scam of this nature , but if me I would ask him to return the item/watch to me , acknowledging I would refund him any postage and offer a drink as a apology upon receipt of the watch back . its odd and you could find yourself out of a watch and have a refund made against you.
Has he confirmed exactly what item it is that he didn't order or need? (with regard to asking him to return it)
The suspicious person in me wonders if this is like the Costco scam where someone buys a real watch then returns a fake.
Thank you both.
Originally Posted by TheFlyingBanana
On the face of it, I strongly suspect that the person who sent me the message above (at 09:16) is not the person who went on to receive the watch (at 09:35). This could be a scam but, if so, I suspect it's not a scam by the message sender above (although time will tell).
On the face of it (again), it looks like some sort of cross-linked account.
Here is the reply I just sent to the message sender above:
Hello,
Thank you for your message. I am extremely surprised and confused by what you say.
I can confirm that I followed all the instructions and information provided to me via both eBay and PayPal. Until this message, any messages you have received would have been sent to you automatically via eBay or PayPal. I despatched the watch to the address given to me via both eBay and PayPal.
May I ask a few key questions:
(1) According to Royal Mail, the watch was delivered today (Monday 28th) at 09:35 to the delivery address specified by eBay and PayPal. Did you actually receive it?
(2) What is your full name? The reason I ask is to compare your name with the buyer's name that eBay and PayPal have given me.
(3) What is your delivery address? Just the postcode or first line of the address would be enough. Again, I ask this in order to compare your delivery address with the one that both eBay and PayPal gave me.
(4) Can you see the purchase (item 254359828202, 'Montine 24K Gold Leaf and Diamonds Dial Watch'), in your list of purchases on eBay?
I realise that you might be uncomfortable with answering all the questions above but it would be very helpful for me to try and figure out what has happened.
I will also enable sharing of my phone number in my eBay account settings. Feel free to contact me by text if you wish.
P.S. Yes, the watch is rubbish. ;-)
Last edited by markrlondon; 28th October 2019 at 23:20.
I'd reply as soon as possible and ask him to kindly return it plus recompense him for his costs. Working on the assumption that he is innocent, his account must have been hacked somehow, but what they are getting out of it I don't know, but get the watch back if possible. Otherwise I just hope it's not the Costco scam mentioned by another member. Intrigued to say the least.
As above, I've asked him if he has received it. But I strongly suspect he'll say that he has not received it.
At a guess, if he tells me his delivery address then it will not match the delivery address that both eBay and PayPal gave me.
What is the Costco scam: Is that buying genuine but then returning a fake? If so, I believe that the very low value of the watch I sold probably makes it immune. ;-)
I'll report back on what happens.
** edit **
Ah yes, I see that Phil Lee confirmed the Costco scam above.
Last edited by markrlondon; 28th October 2019 at 23:38.
I'd only seen it called the Costco scam on this thread, but I have heard of the return a fake scam before, and have feared becoming a victim myself.
Good to hear the watch is low value, but it still leaves a bad taste and is potentially another worrying scam. Hope it all gets resolved.
Sent from my SM-A105FN using Tapatalk
That is a very good question and no he did not. I wish I'd seen your message before I replied to him as I told him what the item was in my message to him.
We'll see what he says.
Ah yes, thanks. Due to the very low value of this watch I suspect that this is not a risk here.
Yes, if this all goes pear shaped then I am relieved that I'm only going to lose £25 or so!
It is all very weird. On the face of it, it seems to me that one person's PayPal account might have been linked incorrectly to another person's eBay account but maybe that's just what they want me to think. Whether it is a scam or a database error by eBay, I do not yet know.
Call Ebay do what they say it’s what I would do.
Thing is, I do not (yet) have an actual problem. As far as I can tell, I've been paid and the item has been successfully delivered to the address that eBay and PayPal gave me. I've done everything I should have done as a seller and, in general, that's what eBay would probably tell me to do. There is nothing else I can do as things stand.
I've replied to the (apparent) buyer and we will see what he says to me next. That will inform my next actions.
I've been doing a bit of research into the delivery address and it seems it is part of "a 47 bedded Medium Secure unit, for male mentally disordered offenders". Ah. Indeed. Also, the recipient's name was rather unusual (although it did not constitute a reason not to send the watch).
Of course, the buyer could work there rather than being a resident. But I think I know where this is headed.
Depending on what the buyer says in reply to my message (if anything), I might give the hospital a call.
What an interesting one, and luckily with an item of seemingly 'low' value given what you've said, so it's fortunate that not a lot rides on this.
Are you keeping all communication via eBay messaging? I see you've said the individual can call you, but I'd strongly suggest keeping it on the one, controlled (and eBay viewable) channel rather than via email or calls etc.
Uh oh. I’d be careful about giving out a return address, although not sure what else you can do?
It might be unrelated but I had a message from a seller recently, telling me that I was receiving a partial refund for an iPhone XR that I didn’t purchase. It was adressed to a different name but sent to my account. Could be a genuine mistake as I’d been in touch with the seller about a different phone but it looked like an official eBay notice rather than a PM.
Did eBay have a recent glitch with crossed accounts? Or worse, hacked?
With the information I found about the delivery address it might have been better not to enable viewing of my mobile number. In fact, I've just disabled it again.
I only offered my mobile number as I thought it might encourage the person who contacted me to cough up the details I asked for. I don't think it's worth it now.
Nothing else to do right now, other than wait to see what develops next.
Don't know but I'd be amazed if it's never happened.
Perhaps a coincidence I sold a watch last year and then got a message saying I am a lunatic or words to that effect.
I just called Ebay to protect myself.
Hehe, there's all sorts out there. I await a reply from the buyer in this case to see what we come up with next.
Your buyer wasn't located at a hospital in Stafford were they, by any chance?
Stop talking to the buyer and let the buyer sort it out with Ebay. It's not your problem as you followed the rules.
Only way to make sure you're not being 'reeled in' for something nefarious...
Yes this. You've done everything right, I'd sit back now and see what transpires, if anything does at all. It may just fizzle out. Strange.
Many years ago when I was selling on eBay, one person was successful bidder on several of my watches over a few weeks. I then received an e-mail saying that he didn't want the watches, he suffered from multiple personality disorder and one of his other personalities had ordered them without his knowledge.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
Depending on what the apparent buyer says to me (if anything), I may well do this. It depends.
He has not yet responded to my reply.
As things stand at the moment there are three possibilities:
(1) It's an attempted scam, either run by the apparent buyer of by someone else (i.e. the actual recipient). If it's someone else then it's been quite clever.
(2) It's an eBay technical fault. Possibly but unlikely, especially given the actual recipient's location.
(3) The apparent buyer is the real buyer and he's in a secure mental health unit for a good reason.
We'll see.
I now note that the apparent buyer has a van for sale in Telford (according to the very limited auction location info) whereas the recipient address given to me by eBay and PayPal for the account for the purposes of my sale is in Stafford.
Last edited by markrlondon; 29th October 2019 at 12:37.
I’d have suggested that he then should sell them quickly before his other personality finds out.
Yes, I was thinking that this might well be something to do with it after I discovered the secure mental health unit connection.
In fact I don't believe that the recipient address being a mental health unit is just a coincidence. ;-)
An interesting story. He's probably member here!
And it's over. I got this from the apparent buyer at 13:28 today:
That's all he said and I'm fine with it. It makes sense.I think it is sorted now. My account had been hacked at work and the item was ordered. It appears that the individual has paid on a card. So as long as you have been paid and it isn't by me then I am ok with it.
The eBay buyer's account seems to be based in Telford and the hospital to which the watch was delivered is in Stafford. These towns are not far apart. I don't know for sure as he hasn't said but it is entirely plausible that the legitimate account owner works at the hospital, logged into eBay from a work computer, and a resident then hijacked his account and changed the eBay or PayPal delivery address to his own at the secure unit.
Good news for all!
It's a jungle out there. One of the reasons I hardly ever sell anything (and the other reason being I am a hoarder).
I'm something of a hoarder too but even I couldn't hoard the dreadful watch. It was such a relief when someone bought it.
It tells me something that the real buyer was apparently a resident in a secure mental health facility! ;-)
I don't think I'm following this.
You sell a watch and send it to person A, whose account was hacked and hadn't bought it. Person B, the hacker, paid for the watch on a card but didn't receive it because it went to person A.
Is that right?
Ha Ha! That kinda matches up with the residences' delivery address (see above). Anyway - there should be no discrimination here - if a resident is allowed access to Ebay and paid for goods there shouldn't be reprimand on the buyer?
Ah - just read the latest - a hacked account - all good then ...
M
Last edited by MartynJC (UK); 29th October 2019 at 18:41.
And that's why he's living where he is. Scammed himself.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t over. Fraud has been committed, so don’t be surprised mic it doesn’t go away.
Fast forward a few years and he is one several forum members.
I found the watch in question last night in completed items, I didn’t want to be rude but it makes sense now. You would have to be raving mad to buy that 🤣
If as it would seem ( from reading the thread ) the hacked account has: a) been used to test a stolen/cloned card via a random purchase, b) someone in the hacked accounts work place thought it would be nice to "shaft" a colleague he does not like by sending him goods obtained via fraud, thus getting him banned from ebay.
This probably hasn't ended yet....
Not quite right. This is how I now know it happened:-
Person A: Works at a hospital with a (theoretically!) secure residential mental health unit.
Person B: A resident at the residential mental health unit.
(1) Person B hacks Person A's eBay account and redirects the delivery address to their (B's) address at the mental health unit.
(2) Person B then orders the watch (using A's eBay account with the redirected delivery address) and pays for it using a card. It was not A's card. It seems likely at this stage (but I am not sure and don't care) that it was genuinely B's own card.
(3) Person A sees the messages from eBay about the sale and wonders what happened. He knows he didn't order the watch and did not pay for it. He asks me (the seller) what is happening.
(4) The watch turns up at the 'secure' mental health unit.
(5) The truth comes out and the confusion is over.
As far as I am aware, no actual fraud took place. It seems to be 'merely' a breach of (a) the Computer Misuse Act and (b) the security of the 'secure' unit. I have no idea what fallout there will be for Person B, if any.
Last edited by markrlondon; 30th October 2019 at 01:36.
As per my message above, there is in fact (as far as I am aware) no fraud. It would seem, from what I have been told, that no one is out of pocket.If as it would seem ( from reading the thread ) the hacked account has: a) been used to test a stolen/cloned card via a random purchase, b) someone in the hacked accounts work place thought it would be nice to "shaft" a colleague he does not like by sending him goods obtained via fraud, thus getting him banned from ebay.
This probably hasn't ended yet....
Hehe, quite.
In my defence I bought it as part of a job lot. Honest!
The only bit still unresolved about all that is that when you change delivery address on your eBay account you get notifications about that change to the account holders contact details.
If Person A got notifications about the sale, they would also have got at least one about the change of address?
Life continually throws up surprises. This is a weird one right enough.
Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk
Who knows. Not everyone reads all their email every day or deals with things immediately.
Could it have been a shared pc and person a didn't log out.
Person b uses their own card and details, but order is recorded against person a's account?
M
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Something along those lines is entirely possible and likely. But I have no further information than stated above so the exact mechanism of access can only be speculation as far as we are concerned here.
This happened in a "medium secure unit, for male mentally disordered offenders" and you'd very much expect that staff and residents should not use the same computers as each other for confidential purposes. But hey, we all know that rules like this (where they exist at all) are all too easily forgotten when it comes to convenience.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
